Chapter 38 - Sehro's Tutorial (Part Two).

As soon as Sehro crossed the threshold of the doorway, the Griblin he had spotted, and two more behind it, popped out from behind several trees and shrubs. Sehro tried to trigger one of his old hunter skills, [Hunter's Sight (Copper V)]. When activated, the skill adds an overlay to his sight that highlights each creature with a dim outline and a number marking the distance from Sehro to each of his targets, up to three at his current rank. The outline would also flash briefly if an enemy exposed a weakness or a mistake made them vulnerable and provide Sehro a significant bonus to the accuracy of his next attack against that target within a few heartbeats. Combined with [Snapshot (Copper V)], which allowed him to aim and release an arrow in a single, smooth motion, but with a moderate accuracy penalty, the two abilities were his mainstay in skirmish style combat.

Sehro was dismayed to see an error message appear in his vision, telling him that [Hunter's Sight] was unavailable.

"Rotted scales!" he cursed angrily, following it with a dismissive cough. The Griblins had already spotted Sehro, so any chance of catching them by surprise was lost. The hunter-turned-assassin dashed to his right, putting more distance between himself and the Griblin furthest away on his left. He drew the bow back and an arrow of light appeared, already knocked on the string and resting in the notch just above his claws. Muscle memory took over as he snapped a shot off at the Griblin closest to him. He ignored the error message telling him that his [Snapshot] skill was not available. The arms of the bow sprung forward, launching the arrow at the Griblin, striking its chest to little effect. The broad shape of the arrowhead was not suitable for punching through the armor-like bark skin of the tree monster.

Sehro kept moving even while taking the shot, risking the slight loss of accuracy for putting some more distance between him and the Griblins. One on one, they weren't much of a threat, but they were almost never encountered by themselves. The lead Griblin, in its haste and eagerness to strike at Sehro, it failed to notice a large lumpy rock the size of a small lumpy rock in its path and tripped, falling flat. Sehro stopped his dash momentarily to draw the bow back again, this time concentrating on needing a strong, metal spike in place of a broadhead.

After the arrow appeared on the string, Sehro drew the string back just a tiny bit more to try and eek out a little bit more power. He aimed at the junction of the Griblin's shoulder and neck, a known weak point on the tiny tree monsters. The bodkin style point on the arrow punched deep into the creature's neck, dealing a critical hit and ending its existence before it could get back to its feet.

*ding* You have slain a [Griblin (Copper I)].

The next closest Griblin continued its maddened charge towards Sehro, heedless of the danger while the third moved to cut Sehro off as the Fuerven neared the curving wall of the training grounds. The thin spindly fingers on each Griblin's hands, looking like twigs on a sapling, thickened and hardened with a sharp point at the end.

"I've no interest in crossing claws with either of you," Sehro called out to his foes. His instincts as a hunter pushed him towards avoiding direct confrontation. He drew a dagger from the bandoleer stretched across his chest and whipped his arm back and then forward. The throwing dagger zipped through the air and slid into the stumpy leg of the nearest Griblin with a loud thunk. The force of the attack caused it to stumble and slow down. Sehro used the opportunity to change directions and avoid getting cut off by the third Griblin.

He drew the bow back and created another bodkin style point on the arrow and sent it towards the nearest Griblin still trying to recover from the attack with the throwing dagger. The arrow took the Griblin through one of its glowing yellow eyes.

*ding* You have slain a [Griblin (Copper I)].

The last Griblin took two arrows to take down, but the space between them that Sehro had been able to open up gave the Fuerven assassin all the time in the world to take aim and carefully place his shots where they counted most.

*ding* You have slain a [Griblin (Copper I)].

"Hmm, a bit easy, but fun," Sehro said as he watched the scenario reset to the default blocks, spheres, and other primitive solids. The holograms of the trees, logs, and other terrain features turned solid white and then into translucent wireframes that shattered and faded away.

"Congratulations Traveler! You have completed the Copper I Active Combat scenario. As a reward, you have earned 100 TEK. Would you like to increase the difficulty and try again?"

"No, not yet. Why can't I use my Hunter skills?" Sehro asked, voicing his question into the air, addressing the invisible, ever present Guide that Søren had described from his time in the Tutorial. The overly cheerful voice of the Guide sang out into the air.

"Glad you asked Traveler! Your Hunter skills have been temporarily suppressed for the duration of the Tutorial or until you decide to switch back to that Path. During the Tutorial, you may freely swap out any trained skills and select their rank. Post-Tutorial, each Traveler can acquire the first rank of select skills available to them from their Path, by spending a skill point or training extensively with someone that has mastered that skill. Non-Path skills can also be learned with or without spending skill points. To learn a skill without using a skill point, the Traveler must learn it through repetition, diligent training, or a particularly noteworthy display of that skill while under duress."

"How do I select my Assassin skills?" Sehro asked.

"Use your Interface to navigate to your Potential and tap the skill desired. You will be able to add or remove the skill or alter its rank."

Sehro saw an icon pulse with a golden aura at the top right corner of his view. It looked like a map of the stars in the night sky above Home. He reached a claw up towards the button and tapped it, bring up a massive interconnected network of glowing lines and icons in the shape of celestial constellations over a starry backdrop and a menacing red nebulae. The center of Sehro's Potential was a sinister looking stylized icon that looks like a hooded Fuerven face with a pair of crossed daggers just below the hood, hilt down and blade pointed up.

Four large icons were connected to the central icon with glowing lines in the four cardinal directions. He instinctively knew the icons represented his attributes, Strength, Stamina, Agility, Intellect. A longer line to the northwest led to a pair of crossed daggers, but it was greyed out. As were all the icons other than the central icon itself. To the southeast, a bow. Northeast, a vial of some kind and to the southwest, nothing. Sehro tapped on the icon of the bow and it caused a small window to appear over the constellation of skills and attribute icons.

[Archer's Insight (Untrained)] - The Archer's Insight skill provides the Assassin with basic knowledge of shortbows and longbows. Range penalties are decreased for each rank of Archer's Insight up to a maximum of fifty percent reduction. At short range, vital points on their target is highlighted. Successfully striking a vital point increases the chance of a critical hit by 5% per rank of Archer's Insight.

He tapped the icon for [Archer's Insight] twice, setting it to the the second rank of copper. This unlocked three paths beyond that skill. The first of which, [Patient Shot (Untrained)], appeared to be a direct copy of the [Aimed Shot] skill he had as a Hunter, but it had to be used from stealth and it increased the critical hit chance and the amount of critical hit damage dealt on a successful attack. Their was also a slight bonus to hit that increased the longer the hidden archer held their aim as well. Sehro then tried to train [Archer's Insight (Copper II)] to copper three and got an error message.

Warning. You may not increase the base rank of a skill to more than 150% of your current rank, barring exceptional circumstances or as the result of a noteworthy feat. Some races or items may modify your affinity for a skill, potentially increasing or decreasing the what rank it can be trained to, though every skill may always be trained at least one rank higher than your base rank.

His eyes glazed over a little in boredom as he read through the lengthy warning message. I almost wish I had never gained access to the Interface. It was simpler before. Easier, he grumbled internally with a slight coughing sound filling the silence of Gateway to voice his displeasure. He tapped through the other two skills, increasing them to rank two as well.

"Guide. How do I increase my um, base rank?" Sehro asked out loud.

"Excellent question Traveler! In order to increase your base rank, you must raise a number of skills to at least one rank higher than your current rank. The number of skills required varies from Path to Path, but it also includes many non-path skills, such as basic attack and defense skills, chosen using data derived from on an ever-shifting analysis of intent and playstyle."

"That's a lot to take in," Sehro muttered. He was unable to advance any further along the archery side of his Assassin's Path, so he spun the interface for his Potential around to bring up the paired daggers icon in the other direction. When he tapped the icon, a prompt appeared asking him if he wanted to follow the Path of the Viper or the Path of the Hidden Blade. With no other information making itself known, Sehro just shrugged and chose Viper, increasing it to copper two. The icon spun around and revealed two daggers with green fluids dripping from jagged blades.

[Serpent's Fangs (Copper II)] - The Serpent's Fangs skill enables you to perform a deadly strike with two short bladed weapons at the same time. If both weapons hit the target, they release a powerful necrotic toxin into the target, dealing 200% base weapon damage over ten seconds. This damage is increased by 10% per rank, up to a maximum of 300% at Copper X.

Two greyed out lines arching away from the Serpent's Fangs icon lit up and revealed an icon that looked like a bullseye with targeting lines crossing vertically and horizontally and an icon of a lightning bolt. The first gave a small chance per rank to hit with short bladed weapons while the second increased his attack speed with short bladed weapons by a small amount per rank. Sehro increased both of those to rank two copper as well, his base rank still didn't increase. He pulled back from the constellations on his Potential and discovered a second node that included a dozen or so skills attached to it.

Several were already at the first rank, including Melee Attack, Melee Defense, Ranged Attack, and Ranged Defense. He increased those to copper two and was finally rewarded with an increase of his base rank. With the increase, he was able to raise his Agility by a rank. Sehro looked around the empty room and moved back to the doorway. "Alright, Guide, increase the difficulty a step." He put away his bow, drew his daggers, and then waited for the Guide to start the next scenario.

"Increasing the difficulty to Copper II. Scenario begins... now." The Guide's voice echoed in the long, curved chamber and a bell sounded as the primitive solids were covered up by large sandstone boulders, columns, and sand dunes. A hot wind blew across the sand that appeared on the ground. Two large scorpions with chitin shells as black as night rose from the sand and shook it free from their shells with a shake that unnerved Sehro a bit. These scorpions were [Deathstrike Scorpions (Copper II)], a threat he had heard about from older hunters that had visited the deserts to the northwest.

The scorpions immediately split left and right, circling around sideways on their armored legs. They kept their small grasping pincers in between their body and Sehro. The Fuerven hunter triggered his leap ability and targeted the scorpion on his right. His legs flexed beneath him and then he was launched towards the scorpion. His leap carried him through the air and he landed on top of the back of the scorpion. He triggered his [Serpent's Fangs (Copper II)] skill and drove both daggers down into the scorpion's shell. The chitin gave way to the attack, splitting into pieces. A sickly, green light pulsed through the daggers and the flesh revealed by the attack began to blacken and rot as the poison spread through the scorpion's flesh.

It's body was wracked with pain and spasms locked it in place. Sehro ran across the scorpion to the rear and drove the daggers into the base of its tail. Several jabs were all it took to hack the tail free, leaving the scorpion bereft of its most powerful weapon. The venom it got its name from. The Deathstrike Scorpions poison was known to be death for anyone unless they had some natural resistance or an antivenin to the venom. Some particularly tough individuals could outlast the venom, but it would leave them crippled in pain for days while they recovered.

Sehro jumped off the back of the scorpion as the paralysis component of the Serpent's Fangs skill wore off. He tried to dash away, but the tailless scorpion had spun around faster than anticipated and grabbed him with the pincers. The second scorpion came up next to Sehro. An amber colored liquid dripped from the curved singer on the bulbous tip of the tail. It flashed down and struck the grappled Sehro in his chest. The pain was unimaginable. His body locked up and his heart seized.

You have been slain by a Deathstrike Scorpion (Copper II).

Would you like to revive? Y/N